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Pentagon lies, claims 120 civilians killed worldwide by US forces in 2018 but human rights orgs beg to differ

salute
© Reuters / Joshua Roberts
A report by the Pentagon on civilian deaths caused by the US military says 120 civilians were killed and 65 others injured by US military actions in 2018 - but human rights groups say that figure is far lower than their estimates.

The annual, Congress-mandated, report, released on Thursday, showed a sharp decline from 2017 in which the Pentagon says 793 civilians were killed and a further 206 injured. The 2017 figure has been revised upward by more than 50 percent on previous Pentagon reporting.

The 20-page report on deaths and injuries in 2018 lists each casualty, date, military operation and location of the incidents spread across Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia. The report claims no civilians were killed last year during US military operations in Libya or Yemen.

Pirates

"We're still relevant!" - Transcript of al-Baghdadi's latest propaganda video

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
© AFP
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Dear friends,

Today I have decided to post a partial (90%) transcript of the video recently released by the ISIS Takfiris. My main motive is that this video is constantly being removed by YouTube, Facebook and the rest of the social media. I happen to believe that listening to our enemies is very important. Listening to our most dangerous and evil enemies is vital. Furthermore, how can I possibly expect people to fully understand and appreciate the huge differences existing between the various forms of traditional Islam and the Takfirism of the al-Qaeda crazies if you, the reader, cannot compare them. I won't bother posting the video itself since uploading it on the social media will only have it removed, while uploading it to our servers exposes us to all sorts of stupid (or deliberately provocative) accusations. I don't need that.

So I asked a friend to locate this video, translate it into English (again, 90% of it, small irrelevant parts have been omitted) and send me the transcript. I am most grateful to this friend for his help.

I leave you with this text with the hope that it will contribute to form your own opinion about al-Baghdadi, the man whom both the USA and Russia declared dead, killed in an airstrike, and who is now apparently happily alive. I will end with a question to all of you:

What do *YOU* make of this Bin-Laden v2 character?
[FYI - this is the conclusion of my (Arab and Muslim) interpreter: "A pathetic attempt to prove ISIS is still somewhat relevant". FWIW - I can only concur: the Russian campaign against ISIS has been devastatingly effective, hence their need to relocate to places like Sri Lanka and hence their need to try to prove that they are still up-and-running.]
Kind regards

The Saker

Comment: Baghdadi is doing his part to keep the clash of civilizations alive. In this, he has much in common with the likes of neocons like John Bolton, Netanyahu, and the Western intel agencies who have been pushing this conflict for the past 20 years. As usual, it is not the "imperial masters", nor the radical jihadists, who really suffer. It is the regular people: the civilians tortured and killed by ISIS fanatics, and those slaughtered by American bombs.

For more on the ideology of freaks like Baghdadi and how it facilitates this agenda, see:


Dollar

First scandal of many? Zelenskiy's wife reportedly bought apartment from tycoon at very favorable price

zelinskiy
© Vadim Ghirda / AP
Ukraine's president-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife, Olena Zelenska, greet their supporters at his headquarters after his election victory on April 21.
Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy's wife purchased a luxury apartment on favorable terms from business tycoon Oleksandr Buryak, Reuters reports, citing official income and property records.

In a report issued on May 1, the news agency said documents showed Zelenskiy's wife, Olena Zelenska, bought a three-room penthouse apartment on Ukraine's Crimean peninsula for $163,893 in April 2013.

That would put the price per square meter at about $1,263, compared with listings at the time that were priced at between $3,500 and $4,000 per square meter.

Reuters said in the report it was unable to establish why the apartment was sold at below-market prices.

Neither Zelenskiy nor his wife responded to requests for comment submitted via his campaign team and via companies he co-owns, the news agency said.

Zelenska has put the property up for sale at a price of $790,668, more than four times what she paid in 2013.

Black Cat 2

Papadopoulos: The intel agency plot to get Trump was international

Papadopoulos
© Getty Images
Former Trump aide George Papadopoulos has lifted the lid on US intel's bizarre attempts to dig up dirt on the Trump election campaign - and on the other countries he thinks may have been involved, including Turkey and the UK.

"I believe the British were actively spying on me as well," Papadopoulos told Fox's Tucker Carlson, describing his bizarre, spy-studded trip to London on FBI operative Stefan Halper's dime, which placed him squarely in the crosshairs of a multinational intelligence operation. Papadopoulos took to Carlson's show after a New York Times story published Thursday hinted that UK intelligence was aware of the US spy ops unfolding on its soil.

While the Times story suggests the FBI deployed suspected operative Azra Turk because of the agency's "alarm" concerning possible Russian interference in the Trump campaign, Papadopoulos describes the "very flirtatious" Turk as an obvious spy; she was supposedly Halper's research assistant at Cambridge University, though she "barely spoke English" and immediately piled on the seduction when they met, so much so that "I was laughing about it," Papadopoulos said.


Comment: That last point is the big one. It seems that everyone was involved except for Russia. Which is why Russia remains the focal point of attention: the entire 'international community' (i.e. the Western world) is united. They all didn't want Trump. And they all hate Russia. So naturally they will do everything in their power to demonize Russia and cover their own involvement in the plot to bring down Trump. See also:


Snakes in Suits

US Foreign Affairs Committee chair quotes Saudi lobby in Yemen debate, now he works for them

saudi yemen
© REUTERS/Henry Nicholls / Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP
In 2017 during a House debate on the Yemeni war, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee cited almost verbatim the talking points provided by a lobbying firm serving Saudi Arabia. Now he is working for one such firm.

The extraordinary insight into the workings of the US legislature, which probably shouldn't surprise more seasoned observers, came from The Intercept on Thursday. The publication obtained the talking points which had been provided in November 2017 to Representative Ed Royce and his source was Ari Fridman, a lobbyist with the law firm Hogan Lovells, which has long represented the Saudi government in Washington D.C.

Called "a fact sheet" by the sender, they were meant to help Royce during a House debate on a proposal to invoke the War Powers Act to stop US support for the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen. And help they did. During two separate remarks to fellow lawmakers, Royce cited verbatim -or almost verbatim- several of the talking points as he was arguing that the Houthi rebels in Yemen, whom the Saudis were trying to defeat, were an Iranian proxy force.

Comment: See also: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal #29: What Israeli Lobby? Anti-Semitism Hysteria Hits US, UK, France


Broom

Poetic justice: Sacked UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson told to go away & shut up

gavin williamson
© REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
There's a certain poetry to the end of Gavin Williamson's time as defence secretary, as Prime Minister Theresa May told him to go away and shut up.

You'll remember that's how Williamson announced himself on the world diplomatic stage, by telling Russia to "go away and shut up." It was an unconventional approach, and it actually set the tone pretty nicely for what was to come, which was a series of mishaps which suggested a man high on self-regard, but low on self-awareness. That's a formidable skill set in any politician, but in the end he pushed his luck too far.

It's alleged he leaked classified information to a newspaper on the government's approach to allowing Chinese tech giant Huawei to build part of Britain's 5G network. He denies it, and says he's been the victim of a witch hunt, and in fairness to him, it's not hard to believe that his colleagues were looking for any opportunity to have him removed.

Comment: Williamson retains his position in the Privy Council so it's likely his actions pleased some at the top: Case closed? UK police & govt in standoff over sacked Defence sec Williamson

Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Perfidious Albion: If Russia is a Rogue State, What is the UK?


Arrow Down

US Senate backs Trump's veto, support for Saudi war in Yemen will continue

girl Yemen
© Reuters
Hanaa Ahmad Ali Bahr, a malnourished girl sits on her father's lap in a shanty town in Hodeidah, Yemen
The United States will continue to aid Saudi-led forces in Yemen, as the Senate failed to override President Donald Trump's veto against a resolution to end Washington's military involvement in the deadly war.

The lawmakers needed a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives to overturn the White House's objection to the law. But on Thursday, senators came 14 votes short of the 67 required for the veto override.

That effectively kills the resolution and ends Congress's push to halt US assistance to Saudi Arabia and its allies, which launched the war in Yemen in 2015.

"So long as the United States participates in the military campaign with the Saudis while not offering any meaningful pressure to get to a political settlement, we are complicit in those deaths," Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said before the vote on Thursday.

"A quarter of a million people are going to die in the next several months inside Yemen - from starvation and disease and malnutrition - due to a military campaign that we are a part of."

In early April, lawmakers in both the House and Senate passed the legislation, triggering for the first time a 1973 law that gives Congress the power to end US military interventions it did not authorise.

Trump, however, blocked the bill, calling it an "unnecessary, dangerous attempt" to weaken his authority.

Comment: Not shocking. That fact is, most Western powers support the Saudi-led war. It would have been a positive step, however. Trump has shown willingness to get the U.S. out of Syria and Afghanistan. This could've been a step in that direction. But support for the U.S.-Saudi 'alliance' is too strong, and it's seemingly only Tulsi Gabbard who is willing to point out how wrong such an alliance is:


Bizarro Earth

Case closed? UK police & govt in standoff over sacked Defence sec Williamson

gavin williamson
© Reuters / Peter Nicholls/ Alkis Konstantinidis/Pool
(L) Met Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick (M) Gavin Williamson (R) PM Theresa May
PM Theresa May's government and the British police are telling each other, 'the ball's in your court', over whether a criminal investigation should be launched in relation to Gavin Williamson's alleged national security leak.

May has refused to refer Williamson to the police. Her deputy, David Lidington, told UK lawmakers on Thursday in Parliament that the government will "co-operate fully" with the London Metropolitan Police - but only if police chiefs choose to investigate.
The Prime Minister has said she now considers this matter has been closed. And the Cabinet Secretary does not consider it necessary to refer it to police.
Cressida Dick, the Met Police Commissioner, has told journalists that the onus is on May's administration. She insisted that her force would only investigate if they received a complaint from the cabinet office.

Comment: RT also reports:
Might he go to jail too? Piers Morgan tears into Gavin Williamson's sacking over Huawei leak

TV host Piers Morgan has wondered what fate awaits ex-Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, who was sacked over leaks from a meeting about Huawei. Will he go to jail for exposing national secrets? Or should he be praised instead?

Williamson was fired on Wednesday by PM Theresa May, who claimed he was the culprit behind the leak, which rocked the UK a week ago. The Daily Telegraph published data from the National Security Council meeting during which the ministers agreed to grant the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei limited access to the development of the British 5G network.

Morgan found both the revelation -and May's resolve to actually do something about it- quite astounding, and wondered what awaits Williamson next; jail time, or was a sacking for divulging top secrets enough?



Morgan's subscribers, however, were not quite eager to throw the disgraced minister behind bars, with many of them insisting that he was actually worth praising ... as a whistleblower of sorts, who exposed May's arguably questionable actions.



Ironically, the whole Williamson affair unfolded the same day another whistleblower, Julian Assange, was jailed for 50 weeks for skipping bail back in 2012, in proceedings that eventually were closed. And now Assange faces possible extradition to the US, where he might ultimately face the death penalty.

Williamson himself, however, appears not quite eager to try on the laurels of a high-profile whistleblower. The ex-minister vehemently denied any involvement in the leak, issuing an entire letter on the matter.



Morgan, however, seemed to be quite skeptical about Williamson's denial, warning that a politician should not be trusted, even with such things.

Williamson appears to wield some power because, despite his alleged leak, he's received a nominal pay off and retains certain privileges:
Snapped: UK govt docs on Williamson reveal he remains on Privy Council, entrusted to keep secrets

Former UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson, who was fired for allegedly leaking information from the national security council, appears to have retained his role on the exclusive Privy Council, where he must keep secrets.

The parliamentary private secretary of Deputy Prime Minister David Lidington has been pictured holding what appears to be a government document outlining the current status of Williamson, and his retained privileges.

The document reveals that the gaffe-prone politician will remain a Privy Council member, despite being dismissed from the cabinet by May on Wednesday.


The Prime Minister asked Gavin Williamson to leave Government, having lost confidence in his ability to serve in the role of Defence Secretary and as a member of her Cabinet. This does not affect his Privy Council status.
The Privy Council is an advisory body to the British monarch, who at present is the Queen. The body approves changes to the governance of institutions that are incorporated by a Royal Charter.

It consists of around 650 past and present cabinet members as well as the leader of the official opposition.

What is particularly eye-catching when it comes to one of the responsibilities incumbent on members is to maintain an oath to "keep secret all matters... treated of in Council."

It comes as news emerged that Williamson will receive a payoff of around £17,000, despite being removed from government over the Huawei leak scandal, Downing Street has confirmed.

Williamson maintains his innocence. "I strenuously deny that I was in any way involved in this leak," Williamson wrote in a letter to May, following his dismissal.
RT reports on the double standards the pervades British politics:
Double standard? Expose NI police collusion, get arrested. Leak from NSC meeting? 'Closed matter'

Prominent British journalist Peter Oborne has said the case surrounding former UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson's firing exposes "revolting double standards" in how London deals with security breaches.

Williamson was fired by British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday after being pinpointed as the leaker from a National Security Council meeting about Chinese telecoms giant Huawei and its involvement in the UK's 5G network. Williamson has adamantly denied he is the leaker, but an investigation found "compelling evidence" that he was the culprit.



Oborne, who is the former political editor of the Daily Telegraph, was responding to a tweet by UK Times reporter Sean O'Neill which recalled that two Northern Ireland journalists were arrested last year under the UK's Official Secrets Act after they exposed British police collusion with loyalist gunmen who had opened fire in a Catholic pub in the village of Loughinisland in 1994, killing six people.

Journalists Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey helped produce a film which named the alleged killers, who they claim are known to police, and offered strong evidence of collusion between the two. For their efforts, Birney and McCaffrey were arrested last August and about 100 officers raided their homes.

Both Amnesty International and the National Union of Journalists said the arrests put freedom of the press in NI at risk. Birney said at the time it was "highly ironic" that the UK foreign office was supposedly concerned about press freedom around the world, while "allowing one of its own British constabularies to arrest journalists" in "out of sight, out of mind" Northern Ireland.

Fast forward a year, however, and Williamson's alleged decision to leak information directly from a National Security Council meeting is being treated by London s a "closed matter" despite being a breach of the Official Secrets Act - and Williamson himself not being a journalist.

One tweeter wasn't surprised, however, saying that Downing Street still sees NI as "a colony in a hostile land" and any attempt to question what security services get up to there will be met with a more "dramatic response" than what a cabinet member might get up to in London.
Evidently there is much more going on than is immediately apparent but, for now at least, the public are being kept in the dark: UK's May sacks defence minister Williamson over leaked 5G deal with China's Huawei


X

Ben Swann to RT: SEC's blessing to MasterCard's blacklisting of right-wingers shows their 'dystopian worldview'

mastercard
Blocking payments to individuals or groups by financial service firms impedes freedom of speech in a free society, journalist Ben Swann has told RT, following reports that MasterCard is allegedly on course to censor the far-right.

The New York-based firm is reportedly being forced by left-leaning liberal activists to set up an internal "human rights committee" that would monitor payments to "white supremacist groups and anti-Islam activists."

"The problem is that everyone has their own views and, in a free society, the idea of a free society is that you are free to have your belief systems, as long as you're not harming anyone else physically," Swann told RT America. "But your belief system belongs to you and you have the right be wrong. White supremacists have the right to be wrong."

MasterCard is not the only holder of purse-strings that is mulling the selective banning of individuals from their services and funds. Patreon and PayPal have previously barred individuals from receiving payments using their platforms, due to their extreme views.

Comment: The U.S. is stumbling blindly into an authoritarian nightmare, and it has been doing so for years. This latest development - the ability for payment processors and credit cards to blacklist individuals because of their beliefs (whether they actually hold those beliefs or not - perception is all that matters) - has come about without any major backlash or protest. The victims are 'bad people', so few will defend them. And those speaking out are in a tiny minority, with no impact on the major option-makers in the media and government. It's a dangerous path to be on, but only the latest in a string of such bad decisions. See also:


Light Saber

"Contrary to international law": Mogherini slams US embargo of Cuba, vows counter steps

us eu
© Maren Winter / EyeEm / Getty Images
Full implementation of US embargo law on Cuba is illegal under international law, the EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said as she promised retaliatory measures amidst yet another row between Brussels and Washington.

The "full activation" of US embargo legislation against Cuba is "contrary to international law" and goes against the previous US-EU agreements, Mogherini said on Thursday, promising to apply "all appropriate measures" to defend European interests.

On May 2, the Trump administration did not renew the decades-old suspension of the Title III of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, also known as Libertad Act, which regulates the embargo on foreign trade with Cuba. The provision allows US citizens to sue foreign companies profiting from properties which Cuba confiscated or nationalized after the 1959 revolution.

Comment: The sanctions push back has only just begun, but the world can't afford to humour the US for much longer - especially considering the US doesn't hesitate to flout sanctions when it suits them: